Month 2 Blog Growth Update: 1.6k Pinterest Followers Later

Hi there!

Welcome to my series, Mom to Mompreneur Blog Growth Update! Wow! that was a mouthful.

For those of you who are new, my name is Elna Cain and I’m a freelance writer and a mama to twin toddlers.

I started TwinsMommy back in March as a way to blog some more – because I just love blogging ? – and engaging with a new audience.

It wasn’t until about a few weeks later – in April – that I really wanted to grow this blog.

I wanted to start a new blog and grow traffic, readers and income and share my story because I know a lot of you are struggling growing your blog too!

I also want to help mamas go from being a mom to being a mompreneur.

Blogging just for the sake of blogging isn’t going to earn you income. Turning your blog into a biz and then creating products, well that’s where all the money is. And I’m chronicling that journey with you!

To catch up with how I’m growing my blog, check out my blog growth series:

• How I’m Going to Grow TwinsMommy + Free Checklist
• Month 1 Blog Growth Update: 4,000 Pageviews Later

If you’re interested in starting your own blog I have an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to start a blog using Bluehost!

1. On My Site

Since actively trying to grow my blog, I’ve been getting more visitors and pageviews every month.

Here are last months analytics:

Not bad for a new blog that was only a month or two in. When I checked my analytics for this past month, I was expecting to double my pageviews, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I almost tripled my pageviews!

I was super happy to see my progress and that my bounce rate is decreasing ever so slightly. I’m also getting more return visitors (which is a great thing if you want to build a community or tribe of followers) and I’m consistently getting around 200 or more visitors a day.

Now, this might not seem like a lot for other bloggers, but let me tell you a little secret:

My other blog – which I’ve had for over a year and have been consistently publishing a post once a week – averages around 100-150 visitors a day.

After. A. Year. Of. Blogging.

I know, right?

So, to see my efforts pay off big time with this blog is such a pleasant surprise!

From my analytics I found out my three most popular posts:

My most popular post is on where to get free feminine styled stock photos. I sort of knew this post would get many shares since images are important for branding purposes. The other two are a mix of blogging tips and freelance tips.

Update: check out 14 more places to grab free stock photos here.

It seems that unique content and roundup posts are popular – because these posts have a lot of links to other people’s blogs – so I will continue to provide more list posts, roundup posts and unique posts like this one.

Let’s see if I accomplished my goals from last month:

• Publish 2 posts of at least 1,000 words a week – Yes! I’m still keeping up with this content schedule AND creating content upgrades, AND writing newsletters every week. And I even wrote an epic 4,000 word list post (yikes!).
• Create more roundup posts – Yes! I did do one collaborative roundup post!
• Talk more about Twins Mommy on my other blog – I did write one post and mentioned this site.

Okay, so for this past month things are working out. I’ve noticed my blog content has shifted from more work-at-home type posts to more mompreneur type posts.

I want my blog to encompass both hemispheres.

The work-at-home mom or freelancer who is trying different ways to earn an income and the mompreneur-in-the-making. These moms are learning about email marketing, sales funnels, monetization strategies and working towards product creation.

But, I also want to have posts to help moms with productivity and raising kids or twins (like myself!).

I hope my blog isn’t lacking focus? What do you think? I know the posts with the most shares and comments are blogging/mompreneur related, but should I ONLY blog about that?

So, my goals for June are to:

• Generate at least 25k pageviews
• Bump up my visitors from 200+ a day to 300+ a day
• Get ready to do some affiliate marketing 🙂

2. Pinterest Marketing

In two short months I went from 600 Pinterest followers to over 1.6k followers!

How’d I do that?

The simple answer is Tailwind and my pin images.

This automation tool has been the best investment for my blog. I can automate all my pins and have them sent out to group boards all day long.

And I think I’ve nailed down the whole brandable pin for this blog! Yay!

Within a month I went from 1k to 1.6k. That’s not bad!

I know having lots of followers doesn’t mean more traffic back to my blog. My average monthly viewers tells me how big of a reach my pins are generating.

Last month I had around 90,000. And this month?

It’s on the up and up so I’m happy.

Personally, my progress on Pinterest is a little slower than what I would like to see. I know many bloggers – by the time they hit the 3 month mark of their Pinterest strategy – they see huge leaps and bounds in terms of numbers of followers, repins and reach/traffic.

We will see what next month has in store for me!

Did I Meet My Goals?

Let’s see if I met or surpassed my Pinterest goals:

• Gain 1500 followers – Yes! I have 1.6k
• Generate 200,000 views – Fail! Only 123,000
• Make more than one pin for popular posts – Fail! I’m not sure if I want to really do this. Creating images takes a bit of time for me and since I have several sites I create images for (plus my clients) I just don’t see that happening yet.

I’m still super happy with the progress I am making, though!

What have I done to keep growing my followers and presence on Pinterest?

• Joined even more group boards. I was invited to a few, but mostly I asked to join.
• I invited more people to join my group board. I have around 65 piners.
• I increased my pinning strategy from 60-80 pins per day to 90-100 pins per day. I watched a webinar from Allison Lindstrom of Frugal on the Prairie and learned she pins 200 times a day! So, I’m going to strive for that!
• Signed up for Rich Pins

And one more thing I did was create pins strictly for two of my highest converting content upgrades.

I created pages on my site and am sharing them on Pinterest. If another content upgrade becomes more popular, then I’ll make a pin just for that upgrade.

Here are my goals for next month:

• Gain another 1k followers
• Increase my pinning strategy to upwards of 200 pins a day (80% me, 20% other pins)
• Repin my most popular pins more

3. Growing my email list

Okay.

Last month I had 54 subscribers.

A month later – with still no lead magnet (freebie) – I was able to generate 213 more subscribers!

In. One. Month!

Wha-what!

I can’t believe I generated over 200 subscribers in one month. That’s amazeballs!

What’s even more amazing is that my unsubscribe rate is fairly low! I’m super ecstatic about this and can’t believe it.

I’m working hard on making my emails valuable with tips that I don’t mention on the blog. I want my newsletter to be exclusive and make my followers feel special 🙂

So, how did I gain that many new loyal fans in only one month?

I made three content upgrades and one of them – my affiliate promo guide – is my highest converting one (by the way I’m using OptinMonster to deliver my content upgrades).

But, by far the most popular is my Pinterest and FB promo list.

If I’m going to do a recourse library, I would want to highlight this content upgrade as part of the overall incentive since I feel more people would want this guide over my affiliate marketing guide.

And other than pinning my posts with my content upgrades and sharing them on social media, I haven’t done much to generate subscribers.

Creating and implementing content upgrades with MailChimp sucks a lot! It’s highly complicated and take a lot of time, but I know it’s a powerful tool to bring traffic and subscribers and I’ll continue to offer content upgrades after I create a lead magnet (freebie).

Let’s see if I met my goals for last month:

• Create more content upgrades and pages for my content upgrades (so I can share on social media) – Yes!
• Create specific pins for my content upgrades – Yes!
• Create a lead magnet or resource library + FB community – Fail! Not yet.

This is all great news, but not on target with reaching 10,000 subscribers in a year. I roughly need 800 subscribers a month and I didn’t reach that goal.

I do, however, have something HUGE lined up for the fall or late summer. HUGE! I feel this will generate thousands of subscribers (well crossing my fingers it will!).

What’s my plan for next month:

• Create a resource library as my lead magnet
• Create more content upgrades, but provide a bit more variety (video, templates, tools etc…)

4. Blogger Outreach

A couple things have happened in this area.

I’ve added more sites to visit and comment on, based on the comments left here. If you leave a comment and are in the mommy blogger niche or work from home niche, I’ll probably visit your site!

I’m also getting contacted by you – my readers – and asking for help! Which is fan-freakin’-tastic!

I totally want to help you all out, so feel free to email me and we can hash a plan out a blog plan together!

Last month, Twiniversity contacted me about writing for them and my post is finally up! Check it out if you have a toddler that’s a picky eater.

And finally, I’ve been getting tweeted and liked by some amazing popular peeps!

Caitlin Bacher, Andrea Beltrami (of The Branded Solopreneur) and Adam Connell (of Blogging Wizard) have tweeted my posts 🙂 Make sure to follow them!

I’m humbled by the thought of these people taking the time to tweet my content! Especially Caitlin, since the only real connection we have is with her Facebook group and newsletter. I’ve been to one webinar of hers, but that’s about it. So thanks so much Caitlin!

I’ve also reached out to Allison of Frugal on the Prairie as well as Kristin of Believe in a Budget. We’ve exchanged emails and I attended their joint webinar too.

I always like to network with other bloggers that have a product. You never know… I might do a webinar or giveaway in the future and networking with these ladies could pay off.

Did I Accomplish My Goals?

• Comment on blogs related to my niche – Yes! But, not as much as I would like. Many of the blogs I visit don’t publish content weekly, or if they do, it’s a post I’m not particularly interested in. I’ve added more blogs, however!
• Join more Facebook and Pinterest groups – Yes!
• Ask other bloggers to contribute to a round up – Yes!

Happy to know that Twins Mommy is getting on the radar of some influential peeps out there. I’m looking forward to networking with more and more bloggers and creatives!

My goals for next month

• Continue to network with other bloggers in my niche
• Promote others’ content on my blog and in client pieces (freelance writing work) and on social media
• Be open to any collabs

There You Have it!

Wow! What an amazing month.

I’m so surprised by how quickly I’m growing this blog in relation to the other blogs I have. But I’m floored by the connections I’ve made with other bloggers and commenters here!

It’s a great feeling when you start to build a community 🙂

I feel the key takeaway points that have helped me grow this blog are:

• Producing quality long-form content (1,000+ words) twice a week
• Pinning like mad
• Forging relationships with others in your industry

And of course, creating pinnable images. I started this blog by finding a brand and template to go off of and it’s working. I even started branding my images on my other blog since I know how much this is helping generate repins and traffic.

Now, I hope I didn’t discourage you by telling you all this! My hope is to inspire you and get you motivated. I want you to try the tips I explained here and see if it will help grow your blog.

I’ll be doing blog growth reports every month and eventually when I monetize my blog, I’ll be sharing my earnings in income reports.

Check out what happened in my third month of growing my blog!

Over to you – what things are you doing to grow your blog? Share your tips and support other bloggers.

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